Greenhouse Project Update

SO we've collected the windows. Got the cinderblocks. Jeff's actually been very busy painstakingly constructing plans to submit to the city, so that's where we were at as of two weeks ago, when we got a "cease and desist" notice from the city.

Which was kind of frustrating to me, because we haven't started anything.

Also we've been getting a lot of notices from the city about our lot. Mainly about the tall weeds (but we've got 5 acres of alfalfa field, Yo.) WE've been working hard on keeping our yard & lawn mown down, and some grass does seem to be coming in, which is good. I've got a feeling we really are going to have to till and re-seed, however. We're doing it this spring. I feel like it needs to happen this year so we stop getting these notices (which are promulgated by complaints from our neighbors... or neighbor. But let's not talk about that.)

(OK, no, let's talk about it. Confession time--when we got the notice, I got upset and called the city guy. & left a message on his phone asking what it was he wanted us to stop doing... mowing our lawn? Because that is the only thing we're really doing with the property right now. And I said we needed to talk about all these notices and come up with an understanding... we want to do lots of wonderful things to this property, but we have seven children and limited resources so people might need to be patient. And remember that, before we moved in, the "lawn" was just a giant, weedy field. With tons and tons of dandelions. So, yeah, I lost it and got kind of assertive on someone. ANd I'm not sorry... I feel like it's time to make sure people know we *live* here and they have to deal with us. Preferably face to face and not with intimidating notes. Gah! Love my city. This is the one bad thing about it--whichever person/people keep sending complaints to the city instead of talking to us face to face, and the city's idea of how property should be. We can't, for instance, have anything but dog, cats or horses according to the zoning on our lot, and it's five acres of alfalfa field in the middle of nowhere. SIgh. We're going to work on that issue sometime in the future. Right now we're just trying to figure out how to grow grass.) OK, Vent over.

Anyway, Jeff went in to ask the city what the cease and desist notice was about, and the city guy said it was because he'd heard we were trying to build a greenhouse. Jeff informed him that, in fact, we're really just glassing in/enclosing our porch, and the guy was like "Oh. Well, that's OK."

So that's OK then.

But it spurred Jeff into faster action on the plans. He took a day off from work to complete them and submit them. City has approved, now it needs to go to the county.

After that, we're looking at concrete and footers. We're laying down concrete & rebar, then putting cinderblock on top of that. The windows will be framed with lumber, of course. We don't have lumber yet. We still need to go get that.

We need to get the cement in the ground soon, however, before there are no days where the ground's not frozen. SO cross your fingers for us, please.